RFERL- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned the incoming Trump administration against scrapping the Iran nuclear deal, saying it has made the world safer by leaving Tehran technically unable to build a nuclear weapon.

President-elect Donald Trump has criticized the deal for giving away too much to Iran and has suggested he might walk away from it.

"Nobody can predict what choices [Trump] is going to make," Kerry said on January 5, but the United States had only "very bad choices" of a nuclear-armed Iran or a conflict in the Middle East before the deal was signed last year.

The agreement requires Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions in exchange for lifting international sanctions on its economy.

"To be crystal clear, terminating that agreement now would leave us with those same bad choices," Kerry said.

Tehran now has just 300 kilograms of enriched material, down from 12,000 kilograms, he said, while it has slashed its enriched uranium stockpiles by 98 percent and shut down two-thirds of its centrifuges.

"The plan has in fact blocked each of Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon," he said.